Monday, December 04, 2006

News of the Day 12-04-06

CO's rapid growth isn't just pressing its budgets and prison bedspace. It needs more judges, too. Which will lead to more need for budgets and prison bedspace, which will lead . . . Actually, this will be a good test of the point I always make here that prison expenses can suck money away from other vital areas of criminal justice. Let's see if it ends up applying here. Wouldn't mind being proven wrong in CO since it's been too true in other states I've been in. . . . KS is getting tougher with ignition interlock devices as a way of cracking down on its DUI offenders, targeting second-, third-, and fourth-timers. As an alternative to incarceration, it even gets some defense attorney support. One quoted even wants it for first-timers even though, as the story notes, effective impact still hasn't been definitively shown. . . . VT, as we noted recently, is having serious debate about our "War on (Some) Drugs." This excellent story covers the arguments well and hopefully portends similar conversation elsewhere. Again, I am not a drug guy. Never used an illegal one and try to stay away from the legal ones as much as possible. But we're talking the need for triage here and a society that lets thousands of people die and otherwise destroy their lives every years with some drugs legally while draining dollars on people using others no worse at the very least should be talking about the logic behind all that. . . . Finally, a terrific article in The Oregonian on Asian cartels in Canada expanding from Ecstasy trafficking into meth (via India!!) as Mexican supplies face tighter restrictions. Details on the traffic development and on one offender who tracks his prior involvement. Required reading. Trust me.